College Hockey:

GREEN BAY, Wis. — George Gwozdecky called “resilience” an overused term. Of course, when a team has as many come-from-behind wins as Denver, the term is going to be thrown out a lot.

The Pioneers forced overtime in the final three minutes for the second game in a row Saturday against Western Michigan in the Midwest Regional semifinal. Denver also played a scoreless overtime period for the second game in a row but unlike last Saturday’s WCHA Final Five title game against North Dakota, the Pioneers scored in double overtime.

“For those who were ready to write us off, you should know better,” said Gwozdecky, Denver’s coach. “You have to look at the leaders in the locker room. Whether it’s something they’re doing or saying, they are determined to come back. It starts at the top.”

Jason Zucker’s winner set Denver up for a rematch with the Fighting Sioux on Sunday.

WMU was 4:29 away from advancing, holding a two-goal lead late in the third period against a Pioneers offense that had been stagnant all game.

“We’ve been in that position many times [trailing after two periods],” said Denver’s Kyle Ostrow. “The talk was that if we get one goal, [the goals] will start coming. It’s the way our team is. We have that never-give-up attitude.”

The Pioneers outshot the Broncos 14-7 in the third period and Ostrow finally put the Pioneers on the board with 4:29 to go. Two minutes and seven seconds later, Matt Donovan’s shot from the point somehow made it through traffic and found the back of the net.

Denver’s Anthony Maiani sent the Final Five title game to overtime with 2:13 left in the third period. David Makowski scored the game-tying goal for the Pioneers against Minnesota State in Game 2 of the first round of the WCHA Playoffs on March 12. The night before, Denver trailed the Mavericks 2-0 going into the third period but Beau Bennett tied the game with eight minutes left and Shawn Ostrow scored the winner five minutes later.

“This team has shown throughout the year that our third period is our best period,” Gwozdecky said.

Denver has outscored opponents 13-1 in the third period in five playoff games.

Possibly related:

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.

Kuhn&Friends

I hope the CCHA gets some respect from the WCHA boys now, we were 4 minutes and about 4 posts away from putting away that game. Im quite certain that WMU was better than most denver people thought. Congrats Denver, I am still proud of my Broncos and with all the underclassmen talent, look for us to come on strong next year.

Can’t wait for #8

Mad respect to WMU, they played well

collegehockeyfan

WMU had the game in the bag, they just let it drizzle down their legs…

B.D.

Its cool that the championship game is most likely going to be UMD versus UND. Call it the US HWY 2 finals. There is a decent chance that Denver will beat UND tomorrow to take on UMD.

Go WCHA!

befair

I guess only one team was playing in this game according to the USCHO report. How could it take Denver that long to win?